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2022–23 WAC men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Number of teams	13
TV partner(s)	ESPN, ESPN+
Regular season
Season MVP	Qua Grant
WAC tournament
WAC men's basketball seasons
← 2021–222023–24 →

The 2022–23 WAC men's basketball season began with practices in October 2022 followed by the start of the 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November 2022. The conference began play in December 2022. This is the WAC's 61st season of basketball. The WAC competed again with 13 teams with two teams leaving the conference and two teams joining the conference from the prior year. Chicago State turned independent and Lamar moved to the Southland Conference. Southern Utah University joins from the Big Sky Conference and UT Arlington joins from the Sun Belt Conference. Dixie State was also renamed as Utah Tech. Each WAC member played an 18-game conference schedule. The WAC tournament was held March 6–11, 2023 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Pre-season

WAC Media days

The WAC's 2022 men's basketball media day was held on October 18.

WAC Preseason All-Conference

First Team

† Denotes Preseason Player of the Year

Second Team

Regular season

Early season tournaments

Records against other conferences

2022–23 records against non-conference foes:

Regular season

Record against ranked non-conference opponents

This is a list of games against ranked opponents only (rankings from the AP Poll):

Team rankings are reflective of AP poll when the game was played, not current or final ranking

Rankings

Head coaches

Coaching changes

Only one coaching change was made during the offseason. Greg Heiar was hired on March 27 as the 27th head coach at New Mexico State University to replace Chris Jans who had previously been hired as the head coach at Mississippi State University.

Coaches

Note: Stats shown are before the beginning of the season. Overall and WAC records are from time at current school.

Notes:

• Overall and WAC records, conference titles, etc. are from time at current school and are through the end of the 2021–22 season.
• Records and season totals only include time spent at Division I as head coach.
• NCAA tournament appearances are from time at current school only.
• NCAA Final Fours and Championship include time at other schools.

Post season

WAC tournament

The conference tournament was played from March 7–11, 2023, at Michelob ULTRA Arena and the Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nevada near Las Vegas. The first round was played on March 7 at Michelob ULTRA Arena with the remaining rounds March 8–11 at the Orleans Arena. Twelve of the thirteen members were invited to the tournament. While Tarleton and Utah Tech were ineligible for the NCAA tournament, they were eligible for the WAC tournament.

NCAA tournament

Teams from the conference that were selected to participate:

National Invitation Tournament

Number from the conference that were selected to participate: 2

College Basketball Invitational

Number from the conference that were selected to participate: 2

*Denotes overtime period

Awards and honors

Players of the week

Throughout the conference regular season, the WAC offices name a player of the week, and a freshman of the week each Monday.

Totals per school - Players of the week

All-Americans

All-WAC

First team

• ‡ WAC Player of the Year
• ‡‡ WAC Defensive Player of the Year

Second team

All-Newcomer team

† Newcomer of the Year

All-Defensive team

• ‡WAC Defensive Player of the Year

Other awards

Sixth Man of the Year: Dee Barnes, Southern Utah

Freshman of the Year: Chendall Weaver, UT Arlington

Coach of the Year: Mark Madsen, Utah Valley

2023 NBA draft

Home game attendance

Bold – At or exceed capacity; capacity ratios for Seattle U and UTRGV computed based on smaller home arena

• †Season high
• ‡Climate Pledge Arena
• ‡‡Bert Ogden Arena

References

1. Lorensen, Nick (November 1, 2022). "Mid-Major Madness Independent teams preview". Mid-Major Madness. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
2. Faye, Matt (July 12, 2022). "FAYE: How Lamar's WAC tenure turned into one big mess". Beaumont Enterprise. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
3. "SUU joins Utah's Legacy Conference, the WAC". Deseret News. March 8, 2021. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
4. "UT-Arlington set to join WAC this summer". ESPN.com. January 21, 2022. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
5. Facer, Austin (November 11, 2021). "Why Dixie State's name change to Utah Tech University matters". ABC4 Utah. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
6. "2022-23 WAC Championships Schedules Released". July 28, 2022. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
7. "2022-23 WAC Basketball on ESPN". October 12, 2022. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
8. "Greg Heiar Named 27th Head Coach of NM State Men's Basketball Team". New Mexico State University Athletics. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
9. "2022-23 WAC Championships Schedules Released". July 28, 2022. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
10. "WAC approves Conference Championship eligibility for Tarleton in recent board meeting". Tarleton State University Athletics. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
11. Seattle U uses two home arenas: Redhawk Center, which is located on campus, and the newly renovated Climate Pledge Arena in uptown Seattle.
12. UTRGV uses two home arenas: UTRGV Fieldhouse, which is located on campus, and Bert Ogden Arena which is also located in Edinburg, Texas and is home to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA G League.

• 2022–23 Western Athletic Conference men's basketball season